Charlie Hebdo Wednesday will publish a special issue entitled The Life of Mohammed , a comic-strip biography "perfectly halal", concocted from texts by Muslim chroniclers, announced Charb, the director of the weekly, who drew the strip. It is not a caricature or a satire, but a story based on a bibliography, according to the foreword by Zineb, a young woman described as a French-Moroccan sociologist of religions who is co-author of the book.

"This is a biography authorized by Islam since it was written by Muslims. It is a compilation of what has been written about the life of Muhammad by Muslim chroniclers and we simply added images "added Charb, which denies any provocation.

"I do not think that the most learned Muslims will find anything blameworthy in the material," says Charb, whose weekly paper repeatedly caused a stir by publishing cartoons of Mohammed. "I've been thinking about the idea of ​​this book since 2006, when the Mohammed cartoons came out in Denmark. I believe that at the beginning we had taken the matter a little backwards, we portrayed a character whose life we do not know, me in particular, "he admits. "Before you can make fun of a character, it is better to know them. We know the life of Jesus, we know nothing of Mohammed."

As for the criticism of the depiction of the Prophet, "it's just a tradition, it is absolutely not written in the Qur'an" claims the cartoonist. "Since the intent is not to ridicule Muhammad, I do not see why one could not read this book as you read the catechism stories of the life of Jesus. "

In November 2011, after the publication of a special issue called Sharia Hebdo containing caricatures of Muhammad, the premises of the satirical newspaper were burned, its website hacked, and Charb received death threats. He lives under police protection. More recently, new cartoons published by the newspaper Charlie Hebdo had attracted strong criticism in many Muslim countries, causing the French government to react.

Although this time the approach is quite different Charb expects it will not please everyone. "If people want to be shocked, they will be shocked, but it is not done for shock value. Muslims are also ready to laugh at themselves. If we begin to think of them as humour-impaired, we are not helping a peaceful Islam, we are playing into the hands of extremists. We should stop being afraid. The more you fear Islam, the more scary Islam will be, "he says.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II